writing resource

As a fantasy writer I build new worlds to tell my story on. Since I write large fantasies that span trilogies (yep, I can’t seem to contain my stories within a single novel) I get pretty in-depth with my worlds.

Now despite being a world builder I am not the sort of writer that includes pages of just world description in huge chunks. Personally I find that dull, instead I build my worlds and then weave them throughout the story, bringing in information gently. I prefer this way in my writing and my reading. I don’t want extensive descriptions about a world that covers 4 pages right at the start before we even meet a character.

LOCATION
When you are writing a war or battle first make sure you plan where it’s going to take place. Land can be tricky, and it changes during a battle.

Image two giant armies amassing on a huge field. Infantry and cavalry alike, all decked in battle gear and heavy armour.

The pound of thousands of feet, men and horses alike. How do you think the ground will look? Grass torn and flattened, turned to mud especially if the weather turns and it begins to rain or sleet. Are there hills or mountains? Has one army taken a higher ground, dug a moat or added spikes of wood to protect their area?Continue reading →

Words – If you are writing a gritty crime novel in modern-day, words like “fuck”, “tits”, “blowjob” might seem appropriate. However if you are writing a fantasy-type novel set in ancient Egypt they aren’t. Think about your words carefully.Continue reading →

Dialogue is the speech between characters. It is when the narrator (you) stops telling the story and the characters speak instead.

Here’s some pointers regarding dialogue writing:

REAL WORLD
Never write dialogue like real-life speech. Why? Because if you listen to real-life speech it is littered with umms and ahhs and errs. Anyone who has ever sat through a meeting or an assembly listening to someone droning on umming and ahhing will know just how frustrating it is. The last thing you want is to inflict that on your reader.Continue reading →

This mini post has been churning around in my head recently after I read a short story online. While the story seemed okay, the word “very” rang heavily throughout and by the end I was just annoyed.

As writers I believe we should avoid the word very. Don’t get me wrong, it’s part of the language and you can throw it around in your everyday speech and type it in emails and even in blogs (I’m sure I’ve dumped it in more than one of my posts!) but when it comes to your writing, your actual stories, I say – Leave it out.Continue reading →

The terms “talent” and “skill” can often be heard, banded about. I see many young writers, new writers who speak in awe of someone else’s talent. This is often followed, I am sad to say, by talk of “I’ll never be that good” or “I wish I was that talented.”

It is so easy to get disheartened in the creative arts. When I was younger my writing would suffer horrendously every time I read a great book. As the wow factor of the book faded, it would be replaced by a bitterness at myself and my work. This led to my own novel festering away alone as I refused to “waste my time” on it.

Thankfully I have grown out of that annoying habit and while I do still read books that wow me, they are now just a measuring stick by which I can gauge my own development.Continue reading →